Switzerland 2011 - A Trip in Review - Day 6 and 7

After Chamonix, it was off to…

ZERMATT & GORNERGRAT

We stayed at the same place we stayed last time because it was perfect.

Even a skylight in the bathroom! and if we craned our heads the right way, a glimpse of the mountains.

When we were still in the planning stages of this vacation, my aunt said that she would come to see us in Zermatt for a day with her friend. Instead she surprised us and came alone and checked herself into the same hotel for the same 2 nights!

She was so concerned about being a third wheel, but it all worked out ok. I like this picture of the 2 of us just chatting and flipping through the restaurant menu:

And here we are at breakfast (me with no make-up!!)

You may already know about the huge disappointment we had when we were in Zermatt last time. The weather was so awful, we didn’t see a thing! Rain and Fog, Drizzle and Clouds.

Grey and miserable!

this time? …  HO.LY. SHIT.

Did we ever miss out last time. OMG!!!  I mean, I knew we missed out, but this time with perfect weather and glorious views I realized JUST HOW MUCH we missed out!!!  I know what the Matterhorn looks like obviously, the image is part of our popular culture. But seeing the ACTUAL mountain blows that all into the dust.

No image can do it justice. It’s just incredible. It’s so imposing!

Viewed from Zermatt, there are no surrounding mountains to give it any context. It’s as if the Gods were playing blocks and dropped one. It’s like a huge stone just stuck in the hills.

Our intention for our time in Zermatt was to go up to the Gornergrat (a ridge in the mountains 3100m up), go for a hike and have lunch.

From up there, the views of the Matterhorn are even more amazing! You feel as if you could reach out and touch it! and it looks so easy to climb… but it’s not, the summit is almost 4500m high.

Lots of hikes to do up there, for all different skill levels.  We decided to hike down to the Riffelsee to get the iconic shot of the mountain mirrored in the lake.

It was roughly a 45 minute hike, less then 2km away and about 250m lower then the Gornergrat Station.

Look how piddly the lake looks from far away! It’s so funny! You don’t realize just how far away it really is, it’s actually a pretty big lake.

The weather was SO WARM! There was no way we could have hiked back up to the station in the condition we were in: overdressed, and carrying bags to hold the layers of clothing we were peeling off as we went along. Instead, we took the train back up to Gornergrat with the goal of having a fondue lunch at the restaurant.

But the restaurant was so hot and stuffy there was no way we could have had a warm meal in there.  It was stifling.

The outside Terrace was nice, but in the full sun with no shade.  I was pretty disappointed, but it would not have been a comfortable lunch.

So, back on the train we went, back down to Zermatt to enjoy the rest of the day.

---

End of Part 2

Switzerland 2011 - A Trip in Review - Day 1 to 5

Better late then never!

This was my 10th trip to Switzerland so I knew what to expect. I don’t think my expectations were vey high, but that’s good because then nothing could disappoint me.

The only thing that really preoccupied me was the weather since almost all of our activities were outdoor ones.  Luck was on our side because it only rained on the first two days. After that: Wall to wall sunshine.

We were off to an interesting start: as you probably already read, my husband and I each got a 400$ voucher because we agreed to be bumped from KLM to Air France. This meant arriving in Geneva about 2 hours later than planned, but since our first city was just a home base for day trips, and we knew it would be raining, we didn’t mind.

I was extra happy we did it after we boarded the Air France flight because the plane was so empty I had THREE seats all to myself!  I was able to lay across the 3 seats and sleep horizontally with my feet up and my head on a pillow!!! Thank God. A good night sleep on the plane makes a BIG difference!

---

MONTREUX

Been there, done that.

We’ve been to Montreux before and explored it enough last time, so we really didn’t do much this time. We just used it as a home-base for excursions and it was a good location for stop over considering where our next home base would be.

Besides, it was raining so it motivated us even less to wander around. We barely took any pictures this time either.

Our hotel was ok… kinda expensive for what it was. But overall I guess I can’t complain. The shower was a little mouldy in the corners … YUCK! but aside from that it was clean.  The bed (mattress) was a little used, but it didn’t squeak.

I don’t think I would recommend it though…

When we got there, they only had us down for a 2-night stay when we had paid for three.  That was annoying, who wants to deal with that after a transatlantic flight?Luckily, I guess they were not fully booked because they fixed it on the spot in less then a minute. The clerk at the desk went to her supervisor and explained: “They have a voucher for 3 nights but we only have them for 2 nights” The supervisor just said: “Just update the 2 to a 3 in the computer”. Done. Thank God.

Breakfast was not included and would have cost 14 Francs for a continental!!! That sucked.

---

LEYSIN

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you know all about this story!!  In the interest of saving time, I will just refer you to the previous entries that tell the story if you are interested. Just follow the links.

The Plan

The Outcome

---

GRUYERES

Sadly it was a disappointment.

In 2006, we has the best fondue of our LIVES in Gruyeres, and we have spent the last 5 years looking forward to doing it again.

I have this ‘thing’ about no restaurant-repeats when we are on vacation. And since Gruyeres is really just about all restaurants, I wanted to try a different one. My husband was a good sport about it because he really wanted to go back to the one we did in 2006, but I insisted that the fondue would be the same in all the restaurants here. I can’t imagine that in a little town like Gruyeres, there is more then one cheese supplier!!!

Anyway, he was right because the fondue was a real let-down. It was WAY too salty! Shame. We should have gone to the first one…  then again, that could have been bad too!  We’ll never know.

This where we went:

And here is where we should have gone! (with the red and while striped awning)

On the bright side, the rain had stopped by the time we got there… nice because the town is about a 10 – 15 minute walk from the train station.

---

GENEVA

I am not really wowed by Geneva, I’ve seen it a zillion times and nothing about really speaks to me. 

Here I am in Geneva in 1990 with the Jet d’Eau in the background:

The last time I was there with my husband, it was a Sunday so everything was closed and he could not experience the hustle and bustle of the city when it was ‘alive’, so we decided to go in early with the morning commuters, have breakfast there, wander around a bit, and then take a cruise to Lausanne and have lunch on the boat.

It was a miserable morning. RAIN RAIN RAIN so we didn’t get the camera out much. Here’s one of the few shots we took. Blah

We found a place for breakfast but by the time we made it to the dock, the only boat for the day that goes to Lausanne had left. argh! “ok” we decided, “let’s have a drink somewhere to dry off a bit, and then head back to train station”.

The place we stopped for a drink was so inviting, we ended up staying for lunch.

---

OUCHY

Since we couldn’t take a boat to Lausanne, we took the train instead. The goal was to explore Ouchy a little, which is the Lake District of Lausanne.

I think Ouchy is a it’s best in the height of summer when it’s crowded. When we were there, just after the rain let up, it feel deserted… except for the birds!

But still, always nice to walk along the lakefront, so we did – to the Olympic Museum. It was interesting!

---

CHAMONIX

Yes, for the record, I know Chamonix is in France! LOL

Chamonix was our next home base, we spent 2 nights there.  You can read a bit about the trek there and the disappointing pool in our hotel here.

The hotel was very nice. Very clean and a very modern bathroom, I’d definitely recommend it.

As you might already know, we were upgraded to this hotel after our reservation in the original hotel was cancelled since the hotel was being renovated.  I was curious to see it! And here it is: Window-less!

Chamonix was just fantastic. Thank God for digital cameras because we would have paid a FORTUNE in film. Everywhere you look there is a picture to take. Cut-Glass peaks, blue skies, snow capped mountains… breath-taking!

We did the top two activities that most people come to Chamonix to do (that is, top two non-sporty activities) : Mer de Glace and Aiguille du Midi.

The Mer de Glace is a Glacier, and although it is getting smaller it’s still the longest one in France.  Every year, they drill a tunnel into the glacier that you can explore. It’s a very simple circular loop that doesn’t take more then 5 minutes to complete – but considering the fact that the glacier is moving about one centimetre PER HOUR, you can understand why it’s not more complex.

To get there, you take a train from Chamonix then ride a cable car down part of the way and then climb down about another 400 stairs. Here you can see about half the distance the cable car travels and some of the stairs.

They have to keep adding stairs because the glacier gets lower every year. Look how far down it is now compared to where it was in 1990!

I especially liked the fact that you can see the remains of the previous year’s tunnel roughly 12 months “down stream”

 

The Aiguille du Midi is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif.  The lookout at the top is 3842m high.  That is CRAZY high!

At the risk of sounding like a cliché, the views from up there are Out-Of-This-World. Gorgeous. Thank you God for giving us nice weather!!!!

Seriously. How beautiful is this???

And almost as a bonus, it comes with a glimpse of the Matterhorn!

The thin atmosphere REALLY got to me, which I was not expecting. In 2006 we went to the Jungfraujoch which was a little under 3500m and we did feel it a bit, but it didn’t affect me as much as this altitude did.

You can’t imagine how slow I had to walk so that I would not pass out. Honestly, my strides were itty bitty!!! More like a little old lady shuffling around then actual walking…  it was like I was walking on a tightrope.

But I am stubborn and once we had finished taking all our pictures, I wanted to check out the restaurant.  The stupid thing was 4 floors up…  and that almost killed me. By the time I got to the top, I saw that the restaurant was closed! ARGH! I turned to come back down the stairs and my legs gave out under me. I grabbed the hand rail just in time and didn’t actually pass out – but two almost fainting episodes was enough for me. I told my husband we had to leave.  I could not stay up there any longer!

---

End of Part 1

Switzerland 2011 - Day 8 to 12

Cheese-Count so far: 3 fondues and 4 raclettes.

I have not really had a chance to check in to my blog lately...  too busy eating! Plus, European keyboards are a pain - nothing is in the right place, and it takes forever to write a sentence because you have to keep going back an editing it!

At this point, catching you up on what I have been upto will be pretty much a review of my trip, and I am saving that more for a longer entry with pictures etc.   Instead, I will just entertain you with a funny story that happened to my aunt.

For months and months she was planning a surprise for us. She said she would join us in Zermatt for a day (Friday) with a friend of hers - but instead she showed up on Thursday, alone, and had also checked in to the same hotel as us for the same 2 nights.

Looking back, I might have suspected something was up, but I never put the pieces together.

When we got to the hotel, I noticed a box of chocolates on the bed. "How nice!" I thought, "The hotel gave us chocolates!!" I didn't actually pick them up to inspect them any closer, and my husband swore to me he thought we got chocolates too the last time we were there. I was SURE we did not, and concluded that he had probably just eaten them!

Later, after we finished unpacking, I flipped over the card that came with them and read: "Hi guys! Welcome to Zermatt, see you later. Auntie"  Nice!, but then I got to wondering, how did she send them to the hotel? Did she mail them? But they were not packaged or anything... then all was explained when I bumped into her in the hotel lobby.

She had checked in about an hour earlier and had the staff leave them in our room.

We had a nice lunch (raclette), went for a walk, had a drink, then back to the hotel to freshen up before dinner.  She got back to her room, and to her utter shock, found a Japanese man in her room, on the bed, reading a book. WHAT??

Turns out, when he checked in to the hotel after my aunt had, he was given the wrong room key (her key) and so they were both in the same room.  It's even MORE unbelievable when you consider that my aunt had unpacked!!  She had some things on the counter, her suitcase on the floor, bathroom items out, even some clothes on the bed! The room was so obviously occupied - what on earth was he thinking!?!!

Here is the lesson I picked up: screw hotel policy; take you key with you when you leave!

                                                                                                                                                              

As far as the trip is going - it's still fantastic! We realy liked Interlaken a lot, although the hotel was not that great, I don't think I would recomend it. More on that when I write up the trip review.

Now we are in Aadorf staying with family for the last couple of days, hard to imagine it's almost over!

The weather has been outstanding, aside from rain on the first 2 days it's been perfect. Great weather for Alp-gazing!

Bye for now, time for bed... another full day ahead tomorrow!

Switzerland 2011 - Day 7

Cheese-Count so far: 3 fondues & 2 raclettes

I am blogging from my IPod - not that easy so I will have to keep it short.

What a tremendous difference between this trip to Zermatt and the last from 2006!! Amazing!! I can't get over just how much we missed. You think you know what something looks like because you've seen it on a billion post cards, and then you see the real thing... AWESOME.

Whereas last time it was rainy and cloudy and visibility was next to nil, this time we had blue skies galore. What an impressive sight the Matterhorn is, it really has to be SEEN to be appreciated. The word that comes to mind is:imposing.

We took the train up to the Gornergrat, gawked at the view then hiked down to the Riffelsee. From there, you can take beautiful pictures of the iconic peak reflected in the lake. Just amazing, one can't describe it without being redundant: majestic, amazing, awesome, imposing.

The weather was so much warmer than expected, even though we were over 3000 meters high, so we did not hike back up to the look-out but rather took the train instead. The goal was to have a fondue in the restaurant overlooking the Matterhorn, but it was so hot in there, we gave up Nd decided to have lunch back in Zermatt instead.

While we rode the train back down, clouds started forming around the peak, so we really did not miss out.

This day was not just a vacation highlight, but a life highlight.

Switzerland 2011 - Day 4 & 5

Cheese-Count so far:  2 fondues and 1 raclette.

We are eating so poorly (fat and cheese and wine and meat) that the other day when I ate the lettuce garnish leaf off our meat-plate I think all the cells in my body jumped for joy!

Having a wonderful time in Chamoix, its really a dream!

Getting here was a bit of a trek, from Martigny it was a train and 2 busses because there was construction on the rails and train traffic was halted. Not that bad if you know in advance and know what to expect, but its a surpirise to be greeted by a bus when you are expecting a train!!

The ride was fantastic mind you - it was a little cloudy but we eventually climbed beyond the clouds and it just looked like we were cruising in a valley that someone had stuffed with cotton balls - hope the pictures do it justice.

This is my tenth time in Switzerland, so I was not expecting much newness but I was wrong. Now, all the chalets on the countryside are equipped with sattelite dishes!!!!  They are painted brown and blend in with the wood - but there they are. The chalet culture is hip with modern times it seems! ha-ha

Our hotel is very nice, you may remember that we were upgraded to a new location because the original one was under renovation - we saw it and its true: no windows and crawling with tradesmen.  We were excited about the heated outdoor pool in the new place. On day one, we got in our suits and made our way outside in the cold air...  only to discover that the pool was a measly 28 degrees!!  thats not heated enough for us - so only our feet got wet.  What a waste!

I have no more time to tell you about our mountain excusions yesterday and today, my time is almost up - for now I will say that they were our of this word. 
Teaser: we were over 3800m up and I almost fainted twice because of the thin atmosphere!! 

More later, bye for now...

Switzerland 2011 - Day 1, 2, 3

Hello from Switzerland!

You might have seen from the updates on my Facebook page that the fun and games started right from the start. At the airport in Montreal, we were offered a 400$ voucher EACH if we would agree to switch from our KLM flight over to AirFrance. I was hesitant at first because it would arrive in Geneva over 2 hours later then planned and that would really eat into the day, but the 800$ discount on future airline tickets was hard to turn down!!  And since we already know that we are doing Paris next year, it was kind of a done deal!! 

So, Travel-Agent-Friend of mine, guess what I am going to ask of you as soon as I get home!!

Our hotel in Montreux is ok. Nothing great. We are comfortable but the bathroom is a bit moldy and this morning at 6AM there was no warm water for a shower.

If you have read previous blog posts, you know about our plans to have lunch at the rotating restaurant Kuklos.  We went yesterday... almost. We knew that rain would be in the forcast, but we decided to throw caution to the wind and go anyways.  It was cold and rainy and grey. 100% overcast, we would probablty not see a thing - but we were determined!!  What if the rain stops when we get up there!!! so, on we went. Freezing in a cog wheel train, gloomy weather, then a walk to the cable car station ... getting soaked, on and on we went, walking in the rain, wind, crappy umbrellas, underdressed - but we would not give up!!  We finaly got to the cable car....  CLOSED DUE TO BAD WEATHER.  Figures.

So we went back to plan A, got back on the train and went to Gryueres for lunch which was great. (it was 3PM by the time we arrived, so it was more of a 'lupper')

Its raining again today, we are killing some time in Geneva and then plan a lunch-cruise to Lausanne. Not the best weather for it, but whats the alternative? Maybe in Lausanne if the weather still sucks, we will visit the Olympic Museum.  It's supposed to clear up by this afternoon, and then they predict sunshine until at least Friday..

Tomorrow, its off to Chamonix!

Bye for now!

Morocco 2004

Crossing over by boat from Spain was exciting… we were going to Africa! OOOO! I felt so exotic… hahaha … so silly.

Morocco (pictures) was an interesting experience because it dispelled assumptions that I didn’t even know I had. 

What do I mean by that? Well, for example: I felt safe walking around at night in Rabat. But then again why wouldn’t I be safe in Rabat???

Our hotels on our budget Cosmos Tour were fantastic! But, why wouldn’t they be?? What was I expecting exactly?? Not sure really… but I liked it. No squat toilets Thank God. I am not that open minded.

We were there a little under a week, on a bus tour that also covered parts of Spain and Portugal (but not Gibraltar ) and during the Moroccan portion of the tour, we had a government approved guide join us on board, who took over the duties of our director. Interesting. This guy was so pro-Morocco (obviously) it was ridiculous!!!  One think I didn’t like about Morocco was the garbage everywhere, everywhere eeeeevvvveeeeeryyyyywheeeeeere and when we asked this government approved guide about it, he would reply: What garbage?  Ah ok, I see, push the good, deny the bad.

Beautiful Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca. What you don’t see is me covering my mouth and nose with my sleeve because the water looked – and smelt - like a garbage dump. Such a shame!

Another example is like when we were in the Souqs and there were flies on EVERYTHING, he would say: “They are not flies, they are honeybees!” ya, whatever.

A lot of Morocco seemed rundown and unkempt and downright dirty to me, but I was told that beautifying the outside of your house is not a priority, the beauty is inside – most often house have interior courtyards with orange trees! That does sound nice, I must say…

My husband HATED it. LOATHED it. He had a bad case of culture shock. At the Djemaa el-Fna (Main square in Marrakesh) he said he hated it all so much he wished he was back at home at work. It wasn’t my cup of tea either, but I was more willing to at least enjoy it while I was there.  I said to him we are not here shopping for homes, we are here to see something DIFFERENT.  He wanted nothing to do with it and just wanted to go sleep right after supper… leaving me to ask other travellers on the tour if I could tag along with them and be a third wheel. So uncomfortable!  But I had a nice time – I enjoyed the Djemaa el-Fna by night, too bad I have no pictures.

After a few days, his disdain faded and by the end of the week he loved it and mentions to this day that he’d go back! Most of the other people on the bus had the opposite experience: loved it at first because of the novelty, but quickly tired of it and were looking forward to returning to Spain. Except for one man we remembered called Ian, who pronounced his name like ‘EEN’ (one syllable) who loved it SO SO SO much he did really want to move there from England.

I have to say, I think we saw the “Touristy” version of Morocco:

• The Souqs in Marrakesh
• The Tanneries in Fes

• Dinners while being entertained by snake charmers and belly dancers

• The home of a local man in the Ourika Valley  - now this was SUCH a scam!! HA HA good for him. Get a bunch of Western Tourists with Westerns ideas to come see your house, which by Western standards is shocking, but he’s the richest man for miles!!! HA HA, his kids were educated in Paris thanks to all the tips he received from all the tourists who feel bad for his living conditions. 
• A walk through a market that sprung up at the side of the road

• Seeing camels – how convenient that the herder just happen to appear on the side of the road just as our bus passed by… in a location convenient for pulling over! But I was happy, we got great pictures!

And of course, the pinnacle of touristy experiences : The Carpet Shop!  You can read about that here.

In conclusion, I liked Morocco, but I don’t think enough to bother to go back. I think I took advantage of my time there enough to not feel like I left something undone (did that make sense?)